Kaiden's POV
The fear in my mate's eyes lessened the bloodlust burning in my veins. I wanted to rip Victor's head clean off his body, but I couldn't risk scaring Rayne more than I already had.I let go of the still-twitching filth, barely taking notice of him as blood continuously poured out of his gaping, foul mouth. I should have done worse to him, but this would have to be enough for now.I shook my head to get rid of the excess blood still around my mouth and fur. Truly disgusting.Wet grass flattened underneath my feet as I went to her beautiful white form. She had once mentioned to.me that her wolf wasn't large, and because of that she had been considered as weak, but looking at her now in this form, she didn't look any less beautiful.Her bright green eyes were focused on me as I approached. I would have liked to nuzzle her slender neck as a way to comfort her, but I didn't want to get blood over her fur. So I reached into her minRayne's POVTo Kaiden, becoming a Luna wasn't an event that could have gone by without an official sort of celebration. He didn't even tell me his plans concerning it at all, but once the day came, I couldn't ignore the rush of energy in the air and the way people kept congratulating me when they walked past.The reverence in their eyes scared and honored me at the same time. The people, even without having to, had welcomed me with open arms and treated me as one of their own even before it became obvious to them that I was mated to their king. The bond the people of Mysticrock shared was a mystery that didn't need to be solved, but instead, nurtured and admired.One old woman, who had been walking with a small child no older than six, even stopped me along the hallway. She blessed me with her words, and inserted a lily behind my ear. The precision in her hand reminded me that even the old still possessed pure life within them, even though they were n
Rayne’s POVThe muscle in my jaw started to hurt from how hard I was biting down. My fingers shook, but found solace in Kaiden's hand. I hated the way my whole system reacted whenever I saw Reynolds. The shaking. The holding of breath as I waited for evil to befall me. The worry.I thought I had been healing from it all the last time I had seen him.He looked around the hall, with hands on his waist. “What a beautiful thing you both have going on here,” he said. “I'm a little jealous.”“What would your wife think?” Kaiden asked, voice too calm for the situation. I trusted him enough to know that he had everything under control, because if he was calm, then there was no reason for me to fret.But maybe it was the way Reynolds' had suddenly appeared here, right in our midst like he owned the place, that fanned the flames of my worry. Although nothing but a coward that couldn't be straightforward about a lot of things, every action he t
Rayne's POVI ran my hand over my mouth to keep myself from outrightly questioning the words I had just heard from Reynolds.“What exactly do you mean by, ‘see me before she's gone forever’?” “If it wasn't obvious from the picture alone, she's very ill, and the doctors aren't making any headway with her treatment,” said Reynolds. “She has a few weeks left, at most. You're the only thing she keeps talking about.”Even from the look in his eyes alone, I still couldn't bring myself to trust his words. But the picture . . . It couldn't have been fake, right?“How . . . How is she sick?” Werewolves didn't get ‘sick’. Sure, they could get severely hurt, like Bradford, poisoned, like Kaiden, but not sick. Our gene pool had become so isolated and deviated from that of normal humans that we just didn't have the capacity to fall prey to normal diseases. “We don't know. But it's bad, and it's very serious. You have to come with me as soon as you can.”I shook my head. “No. I'm not going anywhe
Rayne's POVIt didn't take long for us to get the Oceanpearl Pack. I couldn't even call it my pack anymore because of how much time had passed, but I could tell that nothing about it had changed at all.Reynolds parked the car at the pack house's garage, and I used the opportunity to quickly send a text to Kaiden to inform him of my arrival.My objectives were straightforward: see my mother, find out anything I could concerning Grog's death and the rogue attacks, and get back to Mysticrock, all in the same day. I didn't see myself staying in this place for the night, even if there was somehow a provision for me to do that. “Welcome home, Rayne dearest,” said Reynolds as we got down from the car. It didn't warrant a response, so I didn't say anything to him regarding that. I pulled up my hair into a bun, using the action to pull my mind into a state of focus. The band I used was actually a bracelet with rubber strings that I had swiped
Rayne's POV“Stop this, Reynold. I'm not in the mood for your sick jokes,” I said, noting every step he took towards me. They were light and heavy at the same time. Confidence. Almost regal. He only moved in such a way when he could just tell that he had the upper hand. His hands were in the pockets of his straight slacks, and he looked thoroughly bored. He didn't appear like someone casually saying things that made me question my origins.“Rayne, the reason why your destiny is tied with Oceanpearl, is more than just because of a simple prophecy. You see, very recently, I had a very serious chat with a Priestess, who revealed everything that I longed to know.“She told me about my family, and why you were somehow so important to us. I didn't want to believe it at first, but the more I thought about it, the clearer everything became. The truth that you belong here.”He stood before me now, slightly towering over me menacingly. He lifted his hand to my face, but I slapped his hand away
Kaiden's POVSomething had gone horribly wrong. I could feel it deep in my bones. I had been pacing my room for minutes, waiting for a call or message from Rayne telling me that she was alright. She had promised to give me a call when she arrived, but that had been four hours ago, and Oceanpearl was only an hour away from Mysticrock. By now, the sky had started to darken, but the moon remained out of sight. I moved over to my window to observe the movement of clouds, hoping that it would somehow clear my head. It didn't.I picked up my phone and dialed her number, hoping in my heart that she had simply been unable to make the call so soon after her arrival. Every single time I called, I kept getting sent straight to voicemail. Each time the automated voice came on instead of Rayne's low delicate tone, the worry in my chest fattened.Bradford came into the room after two swift knocks. “Sorry I didn't wait for a respon
Rayne's POV In the darkness, I forgot how to breathe without choking on my own fear. Locked in, as I was, with the corpse of a woman I didn't think I knew everything about despite having spent most of my life with her.I felt it, her corpse. Already giving way to bacteria and the other things that occupied a soulless body. Heavy and decaying, the stench of death hung in the air, coupled with the weight of everything I had been told. Information shoved down my throat before I could regurgitate it and rebuke it. My phone had been taken from me shortly before I passed out from a heavy blow to my head.“You should take a nice nap beside your mother. Who knows, maybe her spirit will visit you,” Reynold sharply commented before ramming his fist into the side of my head faster than my mind could process.Now, I had come awake, and I could immediately tell that I still remained in that same small, stifling room that my mother had been reta
Rayne's POVI stared into the mouth of the gun, wondering how I got myself to this point. Trouble never seemed to be too far away from me, and even in times when I would catch a sliver of peace, it always lurked in the shadows, waiting for the moment it would come out to light.But if there was one thing I had decided already, it was that I wouldn't just lay down and die like I didn't matter. I had things to look forward to, and people to live for. I had tasted what happiness felt like, and I wasn't ready to let go of it.“If you think shooting me will be the end of your problems, you're sorely mistaken.” I watched one of Sloane’s fingers spasm on the gun. “This will not bring you what you want.”A frown appeared on her forehead, distorting her features quickly. “You're supposed to be begging for your life. And you're simply running your mouth. Why don't you get on your knees and beg for your own life like you did your mother's?”At her d